Device drivers are the best known of all when it comes to Windows upgrades. If the OEM fails to deploy a compatible version of the driver, it ends in all kinds of problems. Sometimes OEMs delete the old version, and unless you have a copy, nothing can be done. So the best strategy is to keep a backup of the old drivers, so if you have to reinstall or restore, you can reuse them. In this article, we are sharing a list of free driver restore and backup software that will help you back up and restore device drivers on your Windows 10/8/7 computer.
Free driver backup and restore software
This article shows how you can back up and restore drivers in Windows 10. You can also use the built-in device manager to manage, back up, restore your drivers. Then there are free software like Driver Fusion, Free Driver Backup, etc. that help you easily backup and restore the drivers. Here is our list of suggested free software:
- DriverBackup
- Free driver backup
- Double driver
- Back up Windows drivers using PowerShell
- Device manager backup
Although there are many free driver backups and recovery software, we have ignored those that fall into the PUA / PUP category.
1]DriverBackup
DriverBackup is one of the best backup software available today, which offers filters such as portability, digital signature, third party and OEM. This makes the selection process less time consuming. After the backup is complete, the software generates autorun files to restore the drivers. It can also recognize unknown devices in the list. Those who want to get by, you have command line switches with an integrated command line generator.
2]Free driver backup
Once you have installed Free Driver Backup, click on the Scan button to start finding all the drivers installed on Windows 10 PC. Click on the Backup menu, then you can choose to backup all recommended or only selected drivers. However, there is no way to restore the driver using this software.
3]Double driver
Double Driver is portable software for backing up and restoring drivers. Once you have launched it, click on Backup Text, then scan your computer to fill in the installed driver. Then you select the drivers you need to back up, the location and the type of backup. If you want to take a backup of third party OEMs only, then click the Select button and choose Non-Microsoft.
Publish this; the driver backup process starts. Likewise, when you need to restore, you can click Restore, then point to the folder where you saved the backup. It will automatically identify the backup and start reinstalling the drivers on Windows 10.
You can also use it to scan other computers on the network, and if your account has sufficient privileges, it can back up and restore all drivers from the network computer. Finally, you can print, save the list of drivers in a text file. Download from Softpedia
4]Back up Windows drivers using PowerShell
Most software uses built-in Windows commands to get the job done. Sure, the user interface is fine, but if you like using PowerShell, you can back up Windows drivers using PowerShell. Microsoft offers an online backup and restore command. The first command saves the drivers, while the second installs it.
Export-WindowsDriver -Path C:Windows -Destination E:DriverBackup
Dism /online /export-driver /destination:"E:DriverBackup" Dism /online /Add-Driver /Driver::DriverBackup /Recurse
If you do not want to restore all the drivers, you can use Device Manager to manually install the driver from the backup folder. Read our detailed guide on how
5]Device manager restore and backup
Finally, if you are not looking for any type of software, you can use Device Manager to manually restore the drivers. It’s going to be a long process, but if there are a handful of drivers, then it’s pretty easy. Since the device manager does not offer a backup solution, the only solution is to copy it manually.
Copy the following folders to a different location. If you were to reinstall Windows, you could use Device Manager to recover the drives from the backup folders.
- c: windows system32 Drivers
- c: windows system32 DriverStore
- c: windows inf
In case that doesn’t work, you can always use the Windows Update service to find a compatible or generic driver.
Finally, it is a good idea to keep a backup copy of the installers, which works best when you need to install a working driver version. Often Windows Update breaks the drivers, and that’s where the old version comes in handy.
I hope you found the list of free driver backup and restore software for Windows 10 useful. Always make sure to create a restore point and make a backup of the drivers so that you can revert to it if Windows breaks it.
Also check out our comprehensive list of free software for Windows 10.